Health insurance experiences of cancer survivors

As in the case of employment, cancer diagnosis and treatment can also have a significant impact on obtaining or maintaining health insurance to cover the costs of cancer diagnosis, treatment, and ongoing survivorship care.  Using data from the MEPS Experiences with Cancer supplement, we examined the impact of cancer survivorship on health insurance access measured as ever insured since diagnosed with cancer, ever denied health insurance coverage, and ever refused health insurance coverage for cancer-related visits or second opinions.  We also examined the issue of job lock, measured as whether cancer survivors or their spouses/significant others reported staying at a job due to concerns about losing health insurance coverage.